Suburban man stabbed after argument on Belmont CTA bus: Prosecutors

June 17, 2013|By Rachel Cromidas, @rachelcromidas | RedEye

An argument between a suburban man and a North Side woman on the Number 77 CTA bus escalated Saturday evening, ending when the woman stabbed the man and fled the bus at the corner of Southport Avenue and Belmont Avenue, according to police officials.

Natasha Butler, 41, was arrested Saturday night and charged with two counts of aggravated battery just hours after she allegedly hit another woman riding the bus and stabbed the man multiple times with a razor.

The man, 35, said he and his girlfriend were riding the bus after attending the Glo Run, a glow-in-the-dark 5K race. He said he could hear Butler shouting.

"I told her to shut up or get off the bus," the man said. "Something about it just rubbed me the wrong way."

As the bus approached Southport Avenue, Butler assaulted the man with a sharp object, according to the police report, stabbing him in his chest and other body parts, before fleeing south on Southport Avenue. But the man said he didn't realize until after she fled that he was bleeding from his chest.

The man was treated for three stab wounds at a local hospital, according to court records.

When police officials caught Butler two hours later, she had disposed of the razor, according to the report, telling police officers, "she threw out the knife as she knows better than to keep a knife after someone is cut with it."

Butler appeared at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse Monday afternoon and was held on $250,000 bond.